Machines as Horses

So, this is weird, random, and maybe just me... But do you ever find yourself comparing a vehicle to a horse?It started many years ago, when lecturing a group of teenagers for their Pony Club test... Thinking about horse types. A hunter is a tough, workmanlike all-terrain vehicle that can work all day, over rough ground. It can climb slopes, drop off banks, wind through forests, speeding up in open flat areas. It also needs stamina to go and go. Think, SUV - a land rover, jeep, something big and tough, that a farmer would drive around in.A riding horse is more like your average day by day city car - drop kids at school, get to work, do your shopping. It's a horse who is easy and reliable.A hack, is the sports car of the equine world... It's the Ferrari that you pose around town in, something fancy, ultra-easy to ride, and very flashy...Fast forward a few years... I was living in the Caribbean and was island hopping in a tiny little plane. So, when you sit in the enormous, double story, long distance places, it's like sitting on a great big warmblood... They lumber up the runway, take a long distance run up, and powerfully launch upwards... Things are slow, pedantic, but you feel the blast of power and once going, they just run on forever.Back to the island hoppers... They are like a kid's jumping pony. They stand on the runway, quivering in the wind, like the naughty little pony being held down by the long-suffering Pony Club Parents. As they're released, the leap forwards, bounce, bounce, bounce, and leap upwards, going almost vertically up, trying to get as high as possible before crossing the coast and hitting the land / sea cross winds. As you're sitting up there, they're are buffeted by the elements, not having the weight and endurance of the great big warmblood planes, but so much more manoeuvrable... And, I've discovered it's not just the island hoppers, crossing the Kenyan Savannah in a small Caravan plane us just the same, dropping down, watching the game from just above the trees. And, alas, some planes feel a lot like tired old riding school horses, launching in an unco-ordinated way, where you close your eyes, grit your teeth, hang on and hope…What really made me think recently, though... A while ago I was teaching a young rider, moving from her sensible first pony onto a bigger, faster, jumping pony. She was feeling over horsed, just so much more power. He moved bigger, faster, just more horse. More sensitive too - her old pony needed a good tap tap with the calf to get him going, but the new pony, breathe on his sides and he's off... I kept saying to her, honestly, you're safe. He's not running away from you, he's just powerful. If anything, I'm ultra-careful - she wouldn't have been on him if I thought her unsafe, or worried that he would really be too much for her to handle. But, her brain couldn't quite get around it.In a couple of places that I go too, we move around by motorbike and scooter. I always use the same little scooter, and in my weird mind, it's like a little coloured cob. Workmanlike, reliable, not overly fast or powerful and certainly won't run away with you... This last trip, my little cob of a scooter was lame, so I borrowed a different bike. This was bigger, heavier, faster, and just an awful lot more power. A warmblood of a bike compared to my cob. Tootling around town, was initially interesting... The hand accelerator control was a lot more sensitive, the brake reacted faster, but the bike itself was heavier around the bends and corners. After the first day, I was reminded of my words to my young rider - it's exactly the same, stop and go are in the same places, it's totally safe, just a bigger rev....OK, I'll be more patient with riders transitioning into bigger ponies in future!So, what kind of horse or pony do you drive to work?!Follow